Solar plumes spellbind scientists
May 2, 1996
Web posted at: 9:10 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- New pictures from NASA that show the atmosphere
of the sun may have scientists rethinking what they know
about the sun and its impact on earth.
The images, taken from the recently launched Solar and
Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, show long, spike-like
plumes shooting off from the polar regions of the sun.
Scientists hope studies of the plumes will tell them more
about the solar wind, waves of electrically charged
particles from the sun that bombard earth and disrupt
communications and power services.
Until now, the sun's poles were thought to be relatively
free of the intense electromaganetic energy that causes
sunspots and solar flares.
The plumes were particularly unexpected because scientists
were not predicting another active sunspot cycle until
about the year 2000.
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